TED Talk About Your TeamWe are energetic and enthusiastic. Our team of 5 students come from medical, scientific, entrepreneurship, and legal backgrounds. Our advisory board is strong and engaged. We are fortunate to be able to leverage biomedical resources at Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and RTP.

Tell us about your core team members Fabio Goncalves has an MD degree from Fundação Técnico Educacional Souza Marques, and a MPH degree from Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro State University. He’s currently a second year MBA student at Duke University Fuqua School of Business, completing a summer internship at Eli Lilly. Prior to business school, Fabio was the CEO of a Casa de Saúde Santa Lúcia, a 130-bed hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Roger song has an MD degree from Fudan University in Shanghai, China. He’s currently a first year MBA student at Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Prior to business school, Roger was a sales and marketing manager at Medtronic China for 7 years. He was in charge of their East China business.

Steven Ma has a BS in Biology from Oregon State University. He spent 3 years studying the immune system at the Vaccine Research Center, National Institutes of Health (NIH). He’s currently a first year MBA student at Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Steven also has consulted for the NIH Office of Tech Transfer and was the founder of a web technology startup.

Zachary Finn has a BS in Biology and a BA in Spanish from Emory University. He’s currently a first-year medical student at Duke University School of Medicine. Prior to medical school, Zach was a research associate at the University of Minnesota’s Office of Tech Commercialization and was a market analyst for Dymedex Consulting.

James Whittle has an AB in Chemistry from Harvard and a PhD in Biology from MIT. He did postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School and the Vaccine Research Center, NIH. He interned at the NIAID’s technology transfer office before commencing the JD program at George Washington University Law School.

Why are your team members in the challengeOur team members are in the challenge to help drive technology commercialization. All five of our team members have scientific backgrounds and have developed a strong affinity toward medical science. However, we’re also motivated to help translate scientific breakthroughs into commercially successful products. Three out of five team members (Steven, Zach, and James) have experience in life sciences technology commercialization and have interned at tech transfer offices. We are driven to bridge the gap between basic research in the lab and commercial utility in the marketplace.

Our drive for technology commercialization is ultimately to make a direct impact on patients. By choosing an education in health care, our team is dedicated to medical innovation. Two of five team members have gotten their MD degrees (Fabio, Roger) and one is currently in medical training (Zach). By having experience caring for patients in the clinic, our team is compassionate and have a deep understanding in the need for medical innovations. We also view the challenge as a fantastic opportunity to gain practical commercialization experience. As students, we are hungry for real-world experiential opportunities and for the chance to grow as future business, legal, and medical leaders. Our team saw the challenge as a unique opportunity to challenge ourselves and expand our skillsets.

In sum, the competition represents the perfect combination of personal growth, working with cutting-edge biomedical breakthroughs, and helping to deliver impactful treatments to patients.